A woman accused of stabbing her husband to death on Halloween 2012 is facing manslaughter charges at trial this week.

Robin Washington, 39, is accused of plunging a kitchen knife into her husband Bernard Washington's left thigh. The 38-year-old man did not die instantly, but collapsed on a street outside the couple's eastern New Orleans home where he succumbed to his injuries and bled out.

Washington claims she acted in self-defense and investigators initially classified the killing as a justifiable homicide, but prosecutors later charged Washington with manslaughter.

The trial before Orleans Parish District Judge Ben Willard began Tuesday, and prosecutors Bobby Freeman and Donald Cassels called on Bernard Washington's daughter, the sole eyewitness to the stabbing.

By Wednesday evening, Taberneka "Neka" Allen was still on the witness stand, being cross-examined by defense attorney Jerry Settle. As Settle questioned the 20-year-old woman spoke softly -- barely audible -- and stopped frequently to weep.

Allen said she witnessed the entire incident, which began with an argument that escalated to the point of physical violence, and ended with her stepmother stabbing her father with a kitchen knife.

Settle resorted to unusual tactics while cross-examining Allen on Wednesday, asking her to demonstrate some of her father's actions the night of the stabbing on Willard's minute clerk, Lawrence Dejan.

Allen, looking uncomfortable, placed her arm around Dejan's neck to show the judge how she witnessed her father put Washington into a headlock. Dejan meanwhile, too tall for the petite woman to reach, was forced to kneel down on the ground while Allen again wrapped her arm around his neck.

At one point during her testimony, Settle asked the girl to role play as if she were her father, a tactic prosecutors slammed as the girl began crying.

Allen testified that during the fight her father had choked Washington until she passed out, but said that the woman regained consciousness "within seconds" before going to the kitchen to grab a knife and stabbing him.

Washington is not denying that she stabbed her husband, and she was not arrested immediately following his death. A police log released at the time reported that the 38-year-old man was attacked after he drunkenly beat and choked his wife inside their home in the 10900 block of Roger Drive.

Records show Washington attempted to take her husband to the hospital after stabbing him, and had wrapped a white towel around his wounded leg. But the loss of blood proved too much for him to survive, officials said, and he collapsed on the street next to a car and died.

Washington, who is free on a $40,000 bond, steadfastly maintains that she acted in self-defense.

"He was drunk and he was beating on me, and abusing me," Washington said outside of the courtroom Wednesday. "If I hadn't done what I did, who knows? Maybe I wouldn't be here today. I did what I had to do," she said

Washington, who also goes by the last name Smith, was arrested last year in Lafourche Parish on suspicion of theft and illegal distribution or possession of a pharmaceutical drug, according to reports. Police said she was found with merchandise stolen from several stores as well as a sedative for which she did not have a prescription.

Tynia Allen, Taberneka Allen's mother, also spoke outside the courtroom Wednesday, saying the death of their father "devastated" Teberneka and her brother Ka'Nard Allen, 12. "She'll have to see a psychiatrist; it's just too much for her," Allen said of Taberneka.

Ka'Nard Allen was grazed by a bullet fired at a Mother's Day 2013 shooting that left 20 people injured, and also was struck by gunfire in May 2012 that left his 5-year-old cousin, Briana Allen, dead.

It is not clear whether Washington, who faces up to 40 years if convicted of manslaughter, will take the stand in her defense. The trial is expected to resume Thursday.